Welcome to the Contacting War
by SouthernCookie
Summary: After a contactor attacks Sakura she is sent to Hell's gate to try to identify the man. There she finds Naruto after he left 2yrs ago. To her surpirse Naruto has moved up Lady Blue's ranks and is on the frontline in the war agasint contractors. But it is known that exposure to the gate can change people. And who is the man they call BK201. Sakura, Hei and Naruto POV
1. Chapter 1

Sakura

I had just finished my shift at the hospital and was heading home. The sun had just finished setting so the night was clear and warm, actually a nice night to be walking around so I took the long route home. Usually I would have walked part way home with Ino but she had finished her shift earlier in the day and had gone home to sleep after pulling an all nighter.

I found the village to be a lot quieter than it use to be these days. Sasuke had left years ago, but now Naruto had too. He had been deported, or that's what Tsunade says anyway, but she's not telling me everything. I can tell and she won't answer any of my questions about it and Naruto hadn't even sent word to any of us so no one other than Tsunade knew where he was. Naruto had been gone two years already. It frustrated me not knowing where he was. He was my closest friend other than Ino and my team mate, not that there was much of a team left. I didn't even know if he is still alive but I'm sure Tsunade would break her silence if something did happen to him, or that's what I want to believe anyway.

Kakashi is always busy with missions, never home for more than a day or two at a time and Sai would have missions of his own as a member of the Black Ops again. From what I have heard, he's one of their best now and leads a team of his own. I see Sai from time to time and when we do we catch up for lunch and I must say he's so much better at the emotions thing now which is a relief. But other than that, we're not much of a team anymore.

I spend most of my time working at the hospital, either caring for patients or training the class of medical ninjas which is a shared responsibility of all the medical ninjas so the students have more than just the one teacher, not that they mind it. Although my life isn't that boring all the time. I do still go on missions though my job is to back them up and heal the wounded.

Anyway, back on track, I had finished work and was walking home during the pleasant night. It was summer and cicadas could still be heard in the nearby trees, an annoying sound if you weren't in the mood to be listening to them. A child with a happy puppy and a peaceful looking mum passed by which made me smile. I turned a corner into a not so wide street. I was about half way home now.

A heard a sound behind me. A thud, like something had fallen off the roofs above. I turned around to see what it was and was just a_ bit_ surprised at what I saw.

A naked man standing behind me. He was a full grown man, probably in his late twenties to early thirties. His hair was short and a dark brown in colour with matching eyes and he had a tattoo, or at least I think it was a tattoo. They were more like a series of lines starting from his wrist up. They were past his elbow now. Maybe they weren't tattoos, they resembled scars, as though he had been cutting his wrists but been working his way up his arm.

The man didn't look ashamed about his nakedness and I swear he was looking through me, as though I wasn't there.

"Excuse me, are you alright?" I asked calmly. He could have been mentally ill for all I knew.  
His eyes snapped into focus and it was like he saw me for the first time. In a second he grabbed my throat with one hand and held me off the ground at arms length. I wasn't usually so slow to react but I was tired from my shift.

The man's eyes, his pupils to be exact. They glowed red and then he glowed blue and formed almost like an outline around his entire body.  
This was freaking me out. Even ninjas doing special jutsu don't glow. My throat started to burn from his hand like it was on fire and very quickly my entire body began to burn. I wanted to scream from it all but found I couldn't. The man looked totally indifferent to my pain. Smoke rose from where his hand was I could see it coming up in front of my face and it stunk. It was the worst smell I had ever smelt and I could only guess that it was my skin burning away.

I desperately focused my chakra to my throat where the burning was the most intense. I needed to protect myself as best I could even if I couldn't fight back.

A second naked man came around the same corner I had just come from moments ago. I didn't care if he was naked. I gaped at him as he approached the man grasping my throat from behind. I wanted him to help, but he just looked at me like I was nothing and turned to the first naked man.

"We gotta go, they're coming" he said. This man had lighter brown hair and blue eyes. He was leaner than the first naked man and he had cigarette burns scattered over his body.

If I wasn't in severe pain I may have stopped to think why two naked men, one of which had a strange power, had a habit of self harm, or maybe they harmed each other. Either way I didn't care. I just wanted to escape the burning.

Footsteps were coming closer. Three cloaked figures rounded the same corner, hesitated for a moment when they saw me before pulling weapons and charging at the two naked men.

The second naked man looked panicked and glowed blue before he disappeared in a blink of a second. He was just gone. The first naked man was slow to look around and looked a little panicked himself when he saw, what I took to be his partner, gone. When he saw the cloaked figures coming for him he released me and I dropped to the ground in a heap, clenching my throat to concentrate my healing. As soon as the naked man had released me the burning stopped and I felt instantly better, the only burning sensation that was left was where he had been grasping me. But even that pain soon subsided due to my medical ninjutsu.

The naked man turned and ran further down the street. Two of the cloaked figures ran after him while the third figure stopped before me. I looked up to see the cloaked figure looking down at me, but the person's face was hidden in darkness from the hood. The cloaks were pure black, went down to just above their ankles and were long sleeved and done up at the torso so that the legs were free to move, though their pants and boots underneath were black too. Whoever was under the hood looked at me for a moment before holding out a black gloved hand for me to take.

"Who are you?" I asked, my voice sore and husky from the attack as I took the gloved hand and was pulled to my feet, but the hooded figure didn't answer.

Instead the person kept a hold of my hand and walked out of the street into a wider one that was vacant. There the person let go of my hand and raised a finger to point to the Hokage's building that wasn't to far away. One of the other hooded figures ran to us from down the street and stopped at attention before the cloaked person before me.

"Commander" stated the clear female voice, "we have eliminated the target. We tried to apprehend him sir but he would not cooperate"

Sir?

So the person who had helped me was male.

He inclined his head to her and she did like wise to him before leaving in the direction she had come, using the roof tops to get around.

The hooded figure before me turned back to look at me before starting after his comrade. I stayed where I was, thinking that was the last I would see of naked men and mysterious hooded people when he stopped further up the street and looked back at me. I wasn't entirely sure of what he wanted till he made a hand gesture to follow him. So I did and he stayed where he was till I had caught up.

Following him I took in what I could from him. He was taller than me, which most boys were. He was fit and I could only guess that he had a lean body. He ran like a ninja rather than an ordinary person so that meant he was a trained ninja and he never made a wrong turn through the streets till he reached the Hokage's building, which made me think he was a local.

If he was a local ninja I would know him, but I hadn't heard him speak yet so I couldn't tell and it was so tempting to pull off his hood. But then I thought of the girl who had reported to him. She ran like a trained ninja too, but her voice was not familiar to me which meant she wasn't a Leaf ninja.

The hooded man slowed to a walk when we entered the building. The man knew his way around the building too. He walked confidently all the way to the Hokage's office doors where he just walked in without knocking. I stopped at the door way seeing that the other two cloaked figures were already in the room before an angry looking Tsunade. She gave me a look that warned me to stay where I was.

The two cloaked people stood apart to allow their commander to stand directly before Tsunade's desk.

The hooded man nodded his head to the Hokage and she let out a tired sigh.

"Isn't this a bit far from home for you lot?" she asked but received no reply.

"Only doing our job ma'am" stated the unknown cloaked figure, to which turned out to be a man form his voice, after along pause.

"Yes well next time I would like to know about it before you lot run amok in my village" replied Tsunade folding her hands under her chin and glaring at each of them.

"Sorry ma'am" responded the cloaked female.

Tsunade sighed again.  
"Good. Then the lot of you can go and I hope," she laced the word hope with the tone that promised trouble for them, "this doesn't happen again".

The three cloaked figures nodded to her. And they turned to leave.

"Second," said Tsunade just as the three of them were about to pass me as they left. The man in the middle, their commander, stopped and turned back to face the Hokage, "a word in private please" The man nodded to his two comrades and they left the room and I did likewise after a stern glare from Tsunade. The man closed the doors after we had left. The two other cloaked figures stood before the door, preventing anyone form entering or eavesdropping. So I stood with my back against the far wall and rubbed my neck, testing for areas of soreness, but it seemed well healed.

After several minutes the man appeared from the Hokage's office and left with his two comrades, looking back briefly to look to me, but then he was gone.


	2. Chapter 2

Sakura

"Now, about what you saw last night Sakura" started Tsunade with her back to me as she looked out upon the village from her window. Outside it was another warm day. It was mid morning and the sun was warm and bright. It made me dislike being inside at the moment but Tsunade had requested me to meet her this morning after the incident with the cloaked people and naked men from last night.

"Yes my Lady?" I asked in hopes of making her continue.

"Second told me that one of the men last night, the one they say they eliminated attacked you?" she asked half turning to me.

"Yes my Lady" I replied with a nod.

"Hmm, I can see you did a good job healing your burnt neck"  
I nodded again.

"Tsunade," it always gets her full attention when I call her by her name rather than her title or lady, "who were those people? The naked men and the cloaked people?" I asked. I was hoping she was in a sharing mood.

"The two men are what are known as contractors – "

"What are contractors?" I burst, but Tsunade glared at me for interrupting her.

"You will find out what contractors are soon enough," I wanted to ask out right about what she meant by _soon enough_ but held my tongue as she continued, "As for the group of cloaked people, they are Lady Blue's troops"

As soon as I was sure Tsunade had finished I bombarded her with my questions.

"Who is Lady Blue and why were her troops here?" I started, trying to keep calm as my head was racing with questions. I was having a hard time picking out the important ones.

"Lady Blue is the ruler of a fortress and her troops track contractors"  
That answer would do for now. Didn't want to push her too much.

"Why were the men naked?" THAT was one of the less important questions and I was a bit ashamed that it escaped my lips.

"I don't know" I was expecting Tsunade to have cocked an eyebrow at my question but she seemed as puzzled as I was about it. I chose to move away from the topic of naked men quickly.

"Ok. And what did you mean by _soon enough_?" THAT was a much better question. I couldn't help but to feel a little bit proud.

Tsunade sighed and returned to sit behind her desk.

"You are being temporally deported" the word deported shot through me like a bolt of electricity and reminded me of Naruto's absence.

"Deported?! To where?"

Tsunade waited till I had calmed a little before she answered my outburst of a question. "You are going to Lady Blue's fortress to help them find your attackers partner" I recalled the second naked man that disappeared into thin air last night and knew exactly who she was talking about.

The doors opened and closed behind me and I turned to see one of the cloaked figures. I wondered if it was the commander of the team. I so desperately wanted to see his face. The person lifted a gloved hand to pull back his hood that shaded his face in black even in the sunlight to reveal his blonde hair and blue eyes. He was a handsome man. He had a scar along his right cheek that ran from under his eye to his chin and it was pink and shiny, obviously from years ago. His blonde hair was mainly flat except for the odd spike hear and there, probably messed from wearing a hood the whole time.

"Nice to meet you" he said and I immediately recognised his voice from last night. He had spoken to Tsunade. Their commander hadn't spoken, so this was one of the troops, not the man who had stopped to help me last night. I found my mind drifting to ask myself why I was so interested in their commander, but I brought myself back to attention.

"You too" I replied feeling a bit awkward about how long it took me to reply to him, but he didn't seem to notice and shot a smile my way. He wasn't the most attractive guy, but he was alright. Ino would still go for him.

"Sakura, this here is Eric. One of the people from last night. He is to escort you the Hell's Gate" stated Tsunade moving to stand again.

"Hell's Gate?" I asked but it was Eric who answered me.

"It will all be explained once we arrive" he said with another smooth smile and I nodded.

"How long am I being deported for?" I asked turning back to Tsunade.

"Until the job is done or until I or Lady Blue say otherwise" replied Tsunade. It sounded cruel but she softened it with a smile that assured me that if I asked her she would give me permission to leave when I wish. I returned the smile to her. I knew my master well.  
"You will leave as soon as possible" announced Tsunade, "so go home and gather your gear. Don't worry about your hospital shifts or teaching. That will all be cared for" continued Tsunade with a smile. "Just one thing," her tone turned serious, "no one is to know where you are going or know anything to do with these contractors. If anyone asks were you are going you tell them it is a secret mission. No one besides a select few no anything about contractors or Hell's Gate and we wish to keep it that way"

"Yes my Lady" I replied with a brisk nod and turned to leave for home to prepare, Eric close on my heels.

* * *

Naruto

We weren't too much north, but north enough for it to be cold outside, continuously. I miss the summers of home. And funnily enough I really miss the sounds of the cicadas in the trees, though I'm sure I would become irritated with them soon enough. I missed my friends more though. Of course I had made new friends, but I miss the old company too.

It has been two years since Tsunade sent me here, well it was more my choice than anything, but still. Sort of serves me right for eavesdropping on her discussion with Kakashi….again. But in the end it was my choice. It would be nice if I had the permission to return home, but I still have another three years service here before that becomes an option for me and it will just mean someone else will be chosen to replace me.

I made it to my room and jumped into bed, rugging myself under the covers to get warm. Usually the cold didn't bother me, but going from somewhere warm to somewhere cold….well you tend to notice the cold a hell of a lot more. It would be dinner time soon, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to get out of bed to eat. God that doesn't sound like me at all. Perhaps the change in temperature was making me sick. I put a hand on my forehead, but my hand was freezing so it was no use anyway. Instead I allowed myself to sink deeper into my bed. I had it pretty good where I was, but this place lacked FUN. I couldn't run around like I did. There weren't many hiding places where I could be alone and I wasn't allowed to leave the city without permission. The only things I could do was to spar with someone, train, work (which wasn't even my option. I could get called out at midnight and no one would care) or sleep, which I did the most. I have never slept so much in my life, and that's saying something. Here I sleep whenever I can. I never knew when I was being called out for a mission so sleeping was vital.

Now where was I…..oh yes…..sleeping…..


	3. Chapter 3

**ONE WEEK LATER**

* * *

Naruto

There was a knock at my door that woke me.  
"Enter" I announced and sat up in bed rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. It was Sarina who entered. She was dressed our teams work uniform minus the disguise and her hair was tied back which told me she was here for business.

"Sorry I woke you Naruto, but we have been given a assignment" she said with a slight bow and I waved at her to remind her that she didn't need to be so formal around me. I was happy that she remembered to call me by my name on most occasions unless we were in the company of others besides a select few. I nodded to her and she left the room and closed my door so I could get changed and prepared for work. When I was done she was waiting outside my door for me and she accompanied me to be briefed on our newest job.

We chatted most the way down the hall, making each other laugh and smile. I liked her company, she was one of the few people I would actually choose to be around in this whole place, but she still needed to learn to loosen up around me, although I had to admit she is a lot more relaxed in my company now than what she was when we first arrived and we were assigned our positions. Out of all my friends here, she was by far the closest to me.

* * *

Sakura

It was colder north than I had prepared for, but Eric assured me that warmer clothes would be given to me and there was plenty to buy in the area, but for the time being, I wore my Leaf Village cloak that was white with a hood and two red horizontal stripes down the bottom. We weren't so far north that it snowed, but it was cold enough to see my breath take on the form of a small cloud before me.  
We weren't yet at Lady Blue's fortress but we were near enough to see it in the near distance. We had passed several small towns and villages on the way here but none of them stood against the great stone was that made up, so Eric told me, the outer wall of the Hell's Gate fortress. The wall towered above the trees and stood higher than any building I had ever seen before. The outer wall was a circular shape that enclosed the entire area of the fortress, city and Hell's Gate within.  
"Just how big is this place?" I asked amazed more to myself than to Eric , but he answered me none the less.

"Yep, it's pretty big. Takes the average person a month to walk around the wall" I turned shocked to see him smiling at the wall in the distance with pride.  
"And that's without stopping" he finished turning his smile to me, but looking at the size of the wall, I couldn't say he was making it up.

During the trip here I had tired asking Eric about Hell's Gate, Lady Blue and contractors, but he kept it to himself explaining that he couldn't say anything until he had Lady Blue's permission, but he was nice about it which I appreciated a lot. It had taken us a week to reach the outer wall and I was lucky we were trained ninja who could endure such treks as any average person would have taken twice as long.

When we finally reached the outer wall I saw that the wall was not made out of stone blocks but was smooth and perfect, made from a jutsu, a powerful one and probably from many ninja. This meant that the wall was much stronger as it was formed to be one single piece of rock. What ever Lady Blue was doing in there must be secretive and important and I was itching to know.

Eric was speaking to one of the armed guards at a wall checkpoint. I soon found out that this wall lacked one large entrance gate, but instead it had many smaller one located along the wall which were guarded heavily all the time. After a brief discussion we were allowed in.

The city within was not as big as I had first imagined from the size of the outer wall, but it was still several time the size of the Leaf village. Altogether the city was the shape of a donut. It had the outer wall on the outside and a inner circular wall on the inside. From where I stood I could see that the inner wall wasn't as tall as the exterior one but it stood taller than all of the buildings besides one, a castle like structure. I stood against the side of the outer wall and from this distance looked like a series of large towers bunched together like a bundle of different length pencils standing upright, pointed tops and all. And Eric pointed out that that was Lady Blue's keep and that was where we were going.

This city had a weird feel to it. It was like the sun didn't reach here anymore. Everywhere was cold and almost colourless, most of the buildings being shades of grey, even the keep we were heading towards was a dark grey in colour. The only sources of colour that was in the wall were neon signs on shops, the occasional advertisement and the clothing the people wore. No one here seemed overly friendly, they just went about their daily business as though it were a normal city. Power lines connected each building to one another, though no one in the city looked to be using much electricity at all.

Once we reached the keep I saw that it had a small wall of its own, though it stood much shorter than the other two walls of the city. On the sight of Eric the guards allowed us entry and I followed Eric into and through the castle like fortress. The inside of the fortress was drab too and it was clear to me now that Lady Blue was a woman of business rather than spending her time making the place look pretty. We passed people in the corridors. Mainly people in casual clothing and the occasional white coat, but my heart stumbled a little when I saw a small group of black hooded and cloaked figure coming out way down the corridor. They wore the same cloaks as the commander they called "Second" and his group had and I caught myself wondering if he was among them. They passed us without a single glance and I found myself feeling a little disappointed. Eric gave me a curious look having seen me watching the cloaked people pass with interest.  
"You won't see their faces you know" he started and I gave him an inquisitive look as we continued walking.  
"They where masks under the hoods" he finished and gave a shrug without looking back at me. I would have asked why he hadn't been wearing a mask when he revealed his face to me, but that was a stupid question. He would have removed it earlier just for that purpose.

"Your commander," I asked, "Why is he called Second?"

Eric gave me a side ways glance as we turned a corner.  
"I suppose I can explain that much to you" he said with a soothing smile, "All the ninja here are divided into teams. At the head of each team is a commander and they are each ranked from best to worst, so he's called Second because he is Lady Blue's second best commander"

That made sense.  
"Ah, we're here" he said as he stopped before a two large wooden doors that looked too old to date. He pushed them open with his large muscles and the doors creaked from age. The room we entered was large and spacious with windows and columns on either side of the room. The stone columns formed a wide path to the end of the room, no I would call it a hall, where a single high backed chair sat. In the chair sat a woman dressed in a royal blue dress that had many layers and went to the floor. The woman had black hair that was long and tied back into a plate that went down to her hips. She was in conversation with two cloaked figures who listened to here without speaking.

Eric walked up to the woman who I took to be Lady Blue confidently and waited behind the two cloaked figures patiently till she stopped to acknowledge him. While she did so, he waved a hand at me to join him before her. The two cloaked figures observed Eric and me and stood back to the side of the great chair. Once the woman saw Eric and I there he dropped to one knee with a fist to the floor and bowed his head to her. I copied Eric in order to not seem rude. This woman obviously had great power.  
"My Lady" stated Eric, raising himself again, "I spoke with the Leaf's Hokage again about the incident that occurred during the past week and gained her approval to bring a witness of the contractors here"

The woman rose form her seat and looked me over with her blue eyes. She then approached me and held out a graceful hand to me in greeting.  
"Thank you for coming here to help our cause," she said with a voice that was soothing yet thriving with power and authority, "I am Lady Blue, ruler of this area and in command of the area of Hell's Gate and the contractors"

I bowed to her.  
"I'm Sakura Haruno" I announced to her and she nodded her approval.

"Well Sakura I'm sure you have many questions about what occurred in your village last week and about this place. I shall answer as many of your questions as possible, but please excuse me for a moment as I have not completed briefing this team" I nodded to her to show that I understood and she smiled to me with beautiful white teeth.

Lady Blue turned back to face the two cloaked figures.  
"Second, you and your team are to do as I have asked. Meet the contractor and listen to his commands. I want the hostages unharmed with as little amount of mess as possible. Eric, you go out with your team. Sakura can stay here till you return"

"Yes ma'am" replied Eric standing to attention. And then the three of them left to do their job, Eric donning his black hood and putting a mask over his face, but I couldn't see what the mask looked like from my angle. With them gone I returned my gaze to Lady Blue.

"Ask what you wish" she said with a calm smile as she sat back into her royal chair and I gave her another nod. For a short moment I struggled to decide where to start.

"What are contractors?" I started, standing tall and remained patient as Lady Blue thought about her answer.

"Contractors are cursed people. They can be anyone. People who are here are exposed to Hell's Gate and some people change due to the Gate's influence" She stood and walked to a window and I followed at a cautious distance away, "The Gate turns normal people into contractors, changing them into people with special abilities, but they have to pay a price every time they use their power. We call the price they pay their payment. They also loose their emotions permanently as a part of their contract. This makes them dangerous as they don't care if they kill others without reason"

I was shocked. No emotions. That would explain why the man tried to cook me from the inside out without even hesitating and would also explain why the second man didn't care.

"So then, what exactly is the Gate?"

"We don't know. It just appeared out of no where, but we enclosed a wall around it to protect the citizens in the city from its dangers" Lady Blue was staring out the window as she spoke at the wall that surrounded Hell's Gate.

"How is it dangerous?" I asked feeling confident enough now to join lady Blue at the window to look out at the city below and at the inner wall.

"Strange things happen in the Gate. People who go in usually never come out again and those who do are beyond our help and are locked away for their protection and our own" I could tell she meant that when they returned from the gate they became mentally unstable.

"If you don't mind me asking Lady Blue, but if it's a dangerous place then why not move everyone out of the city?"

Lady Blue moved her gaze from the Gate's wall to the city below.

"If we did that many contractors would escape too and they could cause a lot of problems for the other nations. This place is their homes. They have no where else to go, so I spend my time protecting them from the Gate as much as I work with the other nations to do the same"

I couldn't argue with that.


	4. Chapter 4

Sakura

I didn't have anymore questions to ask Lady Blue so we left it at that and everything fell into an awkward moment, not that it seemed awkward for her, but she was more than happy to let me roam her fortress. So I spent my time wondering around. I mainly walked through the countless corridors, watching out the windows and looking into each room as I walked by them, but I didn't open any closed doors as I didn't want to seem rude. I tried to be polite to anyone I met, but most of them just returned the welcome and continued with their business.

I lost track of how long I had been wondering the fortress, but the sun was close to setting so I guessed it had been several hours. My travels through the fortress was to try to build myself a mental map of the area, which had sort of worked…..not really, as so many of the corridors looked the same to me and I was sure that I had only travelled through a fraction of the fortress.

"Sakura" I heard a familiar voice right behind me that made me jump and my automatic reflex was to spin around and hit who ever it was, but when I did so I missed Eric as he leapt backwards in the typical ninja fashion and he smirked at me as though saying _really?_

"Oh Eric you scared me, I'm sorry I almost –" I began to apologize but he butt in, waving a hand at me as though he could beat the apology away like it was an annoying fly.

"No need Sakura, no harm done" He smiled even wider, this time it was a frisky challenging sort of smile that made me want to blush and I was hoping I didn't, "and its not like you could either" The need-to-blush sensation was gone and I glared at him which made his smile turn into a laugh.  
"Anyway," he started again, catching his breath, "you hungry?"

* * *

The dinner table was huge. It was longer than it was wide, with Lady Blue sitting at the head of it. The table had its own seating hierarchy, which seemed insane to me.

At the head was Lady Blue; closest to her on the right side of the table was a handsome man with brown hair that sat flat like Sai's. He remained silent throughout the entire night, speaking only to lady Blue herself and I heard others referring to him as First, meaning he was the top dog of this place, even better than my Second.

Did I just say _my_?

Anyway, talking of THE Second, he wasn't there. Of course he wouldn't have been wearing his cloak to the dinner, but I could tell he wasn't there because the seat closest the lady Blue on the left side of the table was empty, which (I found out by listening to others on the table speaking again) was his usual seat.

The table was reserved for lady Blue, her top three commander (the Third was a powerful and attractive looking woman with long smooth red hair pulled back into a pony tail and burning green eyes that could stab anyone deep into their core. She sat next to Second and she was also more talkative to others around her, but First ignored her completely and she didn't bother him) and all the other most important people in the fortress, being several scientists, two doctors, chief guard and a few others.

I was only here because I was a guest.

Eric wasn't eating here even though he had been the one to bring me. At first I had been a bit worried about being left here without him but he ensured me that after he had eaten he would wait for me outside the large dining room doors and he had ensured me that he would eat faster than I would. Personally I thought the dinner was boring. I didn't know anyone and no one really made an effort to talk to me either so I remained where I was and watched how Lady Blue's commanders interacted and I wondered how Second acted with them or if he kept to himself, seeing as he had never spoken a word, or not one that I had heard.  
I remained seated at the large dinner table till some of the other higher ups departed and I mimicked their actions and thanked Lady Blue for the meal to which she inclined her head to before returning to her conversation.

Eric had been right outside the doors like he said he would and he smiled the moment he saw me enter the corridor. He asked me how the dinner had been and I told him about how boring it was and how First and Third were.

"Oh, First, nah he's always like that. He doesn't care for anyone that he sees as lower than him, and well, seeing as he is called First for a reason, the only person he listens too is Lady Blue, but our commander gives him the shits all the time" Eric beamed as we walked and started laughing his head off.

"By your commander you mean Second?" He gave me a nod, "why wasn't he there like the others?" I asked out of actual curiosity and not because of my seemingly growing personal interest in the mysterious man.

"He skips meals with Lady Blue and the others when ever he can. He finds them boring too. He prefers to eat with us when he can. Either that or he ends up sleeping through meals" it was getting on my nerves that Eric never gave a name. I was sure Second was either a Leaf ninja OR he visited the village a lot.

"Does this Second guy even have a name?" I asked but thought I sounded to up front about it and didn't want Eric feeling suspicious…I was an outsider after all.  
"I mean," I added, "no one actually calls them by their names, only their titles"

We had stopped at a section of corridor that collided with another to form a T shape. Eric looked at me without any smile at first, but it wasn't long till a friendly smile reformed on his face.  
"Of course he has a name, they all do" he started laughing again, "It's just not everyone knows their names. Lady Blue, the other commanders and –"

"Eric!" he snapped his attention towards the corridor that met with ours. A girl was heading our way in a hurry. Her hair was a light brown and about the same length as mine, blue eyes, fit body, not-too-big breasts and she wore the hooded cloaks that seemed to make up the uniform around here.  
Damn. If she hadn't come Eric may have told me Second's name.  
When the young woman, my age I guessed, came closer and started talking to Eric in an urgent tone I recognised her voice as the one who had reported to Second in the village. So she was the other member of Second's team.

Speaking of the devil…

Second (It could only have been him) walked up to us. He was wearing his hood and I could just make out the mask under the hoods shadow. The mask was like that of the Leaf's Anbu Black Ops, usually designed to resemble an animal's face. I couldn't tell what animal it was designed to look like, but it had a dog like snout(so I guessed a fox or a wolf), but that was all I could make out. As the young woman spoke to Eric about a new and urgent mission I kept watch of Second out of the corner of my eye and I could see that he was facing me….he was either watching me or loving the look of the wall behind me which looked like all the other drab stone walls that made up this fortress.

Eric raced off in a hurry to grab his uniform leaving me with Second and the girl. Second remained where he stood, but shifted his head a little so I couldn't tell (or more so guess) what he was looking at. The girl on the other hand let out a huff as she watched Eric run away before turning to me and suddenly beaming wildly at me, something Second noticed too as he turned to face her.

"Oh, so you must be Sakura! I've heard so much about you. Never thought I would meet you here though" she said holding a hand my way to shake. I took her hand and by the intensity of her hand shaking I could tell she was excited to see me. Maybe Eric had been mentioning me.

Eric returned with his cloak on, but his hood was still down and he was holding his animal mask in his hands (looked like a bear mask). He gave his team members a nod and they turned to leave back down the hall they had come. Eric gave me another smile as he walked past me to follow his team and the girl turned back with a smile to wave a good bye to me to which I smiled and waved to her in return. She seemed really nice.


	5. Chapter 5

Hei

"Hei, you ready?" Mao asked. I didn't answer as a couple of giggling girls walked by the alley way we were in and Mao meowed loudly and lifted a hind leg to start licking the tip of it till they past.  
"God I hate being a cat" he grumbled to himself attempting to spit out the black fur that had come loose from his leg.

"You could always be a different animal" I stated without looking down at him as he perched on the top of the bin beside me.

"Nah, its better than other animal bodies" he said scratching behind his ear with his hind leg and the motion made his communication bell jingle.  
"Good then. I take it your ready" he said after I didn't reply to his first question. I didn't need to. I did this sort of thing all the time. I put on my special black cloak and my mask to show him I clearly was ready.

"How about a dog?" I asked, my voice muffled by my mask but Mao just glared at me with slit pupils. For a cat he could pull a mean face. I turned and ran deeper into the ally, listening to Mao through the communication piece in my ear.

"Now, when you find him, try not to start a fight. I know you two have had your troubles in the past, but if possible he would be a strong member for the cause. If he can agree when you're the one asking, he will be fine working with us. Oh and Hei, good luck" That was reassuring.

Wei was my target. I had run into him before and to be honest I thought I had killed him, but obviously not seeing as he was my latest target. I had a job to do and I wasn't going to fail it just because Wei and I didn't get along.

Yin had lost his location for the moment but it didn't hurt for me to go to his last known location.

The sun had set and it was a warm night for a place so cold and the city within the walls was well lit from the numerous lamps that lit up the streets and the house lights, but the alley ways I stuck too were dark and cold, but I kind of liked it when I was on a job.

"Hei," came a monotone sweet voice of Yin over the communication device, "I've found him"

"Good Yin, where?" I asked without stopping

"This way" she replied and I stopped to wait for her to show me the way. To my left was a puddle that had formed on the ground and it was there that Yin's spector rose from the water before disappearing. I looked around me for the next sighting of Yin's spector. It reappeared further up in the ally on a broken window where water droplets were and I headed for her spector.

Yin led me through the city like that, getting me to follow her spector till I was close enough to find my own way to Wei as she couldn't risk him seeing her spector too or the mission would be a failure as he would know I was coming.

I positioned myself on a roof top to get the best view possible. We were in an abandoned area close to the inner wall and many of the buildings had been damaged or burnt from previous years. This city use to be a huge and busy place, full of life and happy people, but when Hell's Gate appeared the people panicked and fled to the outskirts of the city. Lady Blue, ruler of this city, ordered a wall to be put around Hell's Gate's circumference to protect the people of the city, and soon they recovered, but the areas closest to the inner wall remained abandoned due to the fear Hell's Gate's phenomenons.

It was dark now and my black coat helped me to blend into the night so Wei didn't notice me when he walked through the clearing below me. Yin had done a good job of directing me so that he would cross my path and I made a mental note to thank her later.

I dropped down behind him, landing in a crouch. He turned to face me and his face froze with anger and joy when he recognised my white mask. Half of Wei's face was scarred from our last battle, but his hair remained spiked and his ears pointed as though he were an elf. His face showed more of his joy of running into me than anger.

"The Black Reaper, it's been some time since we last met" he spoke to me with venom in his tone and I could read that he was going to enjoy the chance of challenging me to another fight, though he would intend to kill me.  
I remained silent for some time.  
"Well, here for a rematch?" he asked, readying himself.

"No" I answered through my fragile mask, "I'm here to talk"

"Sure you are" he hissed with a broad and twisted smile. I was going to explain myself, but it was a little hard when he bolted towards me, ready to strike.

* * *

Sakura

With Eric gone I was alone again so I resumed exploring Lady Blue's fortress. I took a different path this time and, well to be totally honest, I was completely lost. Lady Blue had told me earlier in the day that Eric would show me the main places in the fortress, like the dorm rooms (where I too would be staying during my time here – though in the guest area), cafeteria, training ground, medical rooms and so on, but with him away, I had no clue of where I was going or where I was going to stay for the night. And that was a problem because I was getting tired.

I decided to go back the way I had come to get me back to a place I knew, but when I turned the corner I hit someone. In my daze I quickly apologized to the person, only to find I had just run into Lady Blue, who was accompanied by several people.

"Lady Blue, I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there" I sputtered

"Oh, Sakura," she waved my apology away, "What are you up to? Seeing as Eric isn't here"

I thought I was in trouble, but lying was not my strong suit.  
"I was exploring the fortress my Lady, but I seem to have become lost" I bowed to her in apology.

"No worries, it happens to everyone here" she gave me a sincere and warm smile, but the people around her looked frustrated that I was delaying them. "Well since you have yet to see all my fortress has to offer, please accompany me if you wish as I am on my way to one of the most important rooms right now" her smile didn't falter as she waited for my answer gracefully and I gave her a nod. I couldn't deny her when she had asked me so nicely.

I walked behind her and the others till we walked through a door that looked like all the others that sat along the corridor walls, but this room was much larger then any I had seen so far, expect the main hall (where Lady Blue sits on her "throne") and lady Blue's personal dining area.  
The room was buzzing with electricity. The lights were on and flushed the room with white. On the far wall there were several screens bordering one larger central screen. Each screen showed random areas of the surrounding city and what was happening in those viewed areas. Before the wall of screens were neatly organised tables in rows with smaller screens on them and workers tapping away on the desks. We stood at the back of the room where all the screens could be easily seen and there was a single high backed chair that Lady Blue sat in to view the screens on the far wall. I stood close to her and slightly behind her chair and I was amazed with the rooms set up. I had never seen anything so advanced in my life or even heard of it.

"This is the surveillance room" stated Lady Blue, glancing back at me and smiling at my gob-smacked expression, "here I can see what is happening in my city and see who's making trouble" she turned her attention back towards the far wall till a man who had been standing and talking to the people at the desks came over to her.

"My lady" he bowed, "We have word that Second is tracking the target"

"Good" she stated, but her smile faded as she got serious, "well?" she waved at the man and he scurried back to the desks and ordered the workers what to do. They tapped away furiously at their desks till the screens views all flickered and changed. The main focus of Lady Blue's attention was on the largest of the screens which showed who I took to be Second stalking stealthily through abandoned buildings.

"My Lady!" called one of the workers at a desk. The woman who had called out furiously tapped away at her desk before changing the main screens view to another area of abandoned buildings. On the screen was a man in a black cloak. His cloak was different from Second's and the others. It had a high collar rather than a hood and flowed more at the back, as well as being dark green in colour on the inside of the man's cloak. His body was thin and lean, but strong too; his hair black and short and he wore a flat white mask that had black eyes, a thin red line for a smile and a purple lightening bolt over the right black eye.

"That man in the mask –" started Lady Blue

"Yes my Lady," called back a woman at a desk closest to us, "It's BK201"

Lady Blue considered this for a serious moment.  
"The Black Reaper" she muttered to herself, watching the screen with all of her attention.

* * *

Naruto

Our job had been simple, capture the target, but it didn't turn out to be that simple. I had gone on ahead to capture the target and my team were to stay hidden and only show themselves if the target tried to escape or if I called for their help.

I was closing in on the target's position when I heard a clash. I froze to listen. I heard the clash again and knew that something was up. This was our job so surely another team hadn't intervened.

I moved forward at a quicker rate, remaining hidden behind structures till I fully understood what was going on. If the sounds weren't from my target then they could scare him away.

I was closing in on the location, remaining hidden when I saw my target enter the open area before me. He was wearing a long white sleeve top with blood dripping from his fingertips. He was moving quickly as tough escaping from someone, but his facial expression suggested he was enjoying the chase.

He was getting away from me quickly so I had to go for him now or risk loosing him and it would take months to find him again.

I showed myself and he froze, turning to face me, his smile fading.

"And who may you be?" he sneered, annoyed by my presence. I remained silent and stepped towards him.  
"I see, you are one of them, come to get me" his scowled at me deeper and raised a hand at chest height ready for an attack. I knew his abilities. I knew his blood was his weapon. The fact that he was already bleeding was bad. It was a habit of his to cut his wrists to flick blood at his enemies. I could not let a single drop touch me or I would be in trouble.

I continued towards him silently. He couldn't see my face, but he didn't care who I was. He whipped his arm away from his body at such speed that he sent blood flying towards me and I had to respond quickly to avoid his attack.

* * *

Okay, so finally getting somewhere interesting


	6. Chapter 6

Naruto

I couldn't land a single attack on him; I was too busy avoiding his blood which was a difficult task. I knew my team mates were standing by ready to help at my command and I was beginning to consider it too if this went on any longer. Our target had a short to medium range of attack and a wide on at that. He could cover large areas in a single attack which would be dangerous if my whole team were involved.

A voice cried out behind me, yelling the target's name and I was suddenly concerned about the target possibly having back up of his own.

I left my guard open for a second to long and my target swung his arm my way, splattering blood as he went at my head level. I avoided most of the blood droplets, but a single drop landed on my mask. I had to act quick or I would be dead.

* * *

Sakura

The main screen had swapped back to watch Second's progress at Lady Blue's command. The action on the main screen was getting more intense with each move. Second was jumping around like a graceful professional avoiding the enemy's attack, but he was hit when another cloaked man, BK201 arrived on the scene. Second seemed surprised by the arrival of the Black Reaper, as Lady Blue had called him.

When Second was hit by his target's attack he leapt backwards, gaining distance between him and his target before whipping off his white animal mask in a blur of movement. The target clicked his fingers and Second's mask shattered in mid air. So that was the contractor's ability. I didn't fully understand how he made the mask shatter, but Second had seen it coming and his decision to lose his mask saved his life. Second's target paused for a moment, smiled cockily and said some silent words to Second (I'm guessing because he saw his face) before he lunged forward again to attack Second who leapt gracefully out of the way. The target went at him again, but was stopped this time by BK201 who had moved in. The man fended off BK201 with a swing of his arm, before spinning on his heel to attack second again. Again, Second hadn't been so lucky and when the target landed another attack he had to pull off his cloak. With a snap of his fingers, spots on the cloak shone brightly before disappearing and leaving the cloak falling to the ground in pieces.

Now Second stood in only his black pants and top, with his utility belt and heavy black boots. If he was attacked again I doubted he could pull off the rest of his clothes fast enough.

I unconsciously took a step closer to the screen, looking Second up and down. His blonde spiky hair looked so familiar I was speechless when I recognised Naruto.

* * *

Hei

Wei was tricky. He had fled from me knowing I would chase him. I guessed he knew this area well and wanted to lead me into an area where he would have the advantage, so naturally I had kept my distance while following him, what I hadn't expected Lady Blue's troops to be here too. When I first spotted the hooded figure I remained hidden and watched him interact with Wei for a short while. I was going to sit aside and see who won out of the two. If the troop won then I could just take Wei off of him and if Wei won he would have used more blood and would be more exhausted and easier for me to overcome. But when I saw the troops mask break I became more concerned about his safety when I saw under his dark hood that he was only a teenage boy, not more than 18 or 19. Too young to be fighting someone as dangerous as Wei, so I stepped in. It was clear the boy recognised my mask and knew I was an enemy of Lady Blue, but he remained focussed on Wei rather than me. For a moment I thought he was appreciating my assistance, but in the end we were after the same man so I knew this was going to take longer than I would have liked. Wei destroyed the boy's coat and the boy knew that if Wei's blood got him again it would be over. He had no more layers he could easily shed. Wei knew this also and had a sinister grin on his face. I stepped in again, getting in between the boy and Wei so his attention would be on me. Wei snarled at me and raised his hand to let loose a spray of blood towards me. A kunai flew past my head and towards Wei who had to move back to avoid it, giving me some time.

* * *

Sakura

Naruto. I couldn't believe it! So this is where Tsunade had sent Naruto, but I didn't understand why. Tsunade was going to get an ear full of questions from me when my mission here was over with.

I was watching the action on the screen so intently that my eyes began to water from lack of blinking.

BK201 had joined the action in full now. It had started with him trying to prevent the target from attacking Naruto, but now it had turned into a nasty three way battle. Naruto was up against his target and BK201 who I figured must also be after the same target. And as it turned out Naruto was up against two high ranked and notoriously dangerous contractors.

"Call for backup to Second's position," ordered Lady Blue from her seat, "And order Second's team to give him support!"

"Yes my lady" called back one of the woman at the desk and she spoke into a microphone piece, telling others what to do.

Back on the screen I could see that the orders had reached Naruto's team members and they had come from where ever they had been hiding. There were only two of them so I knew they were Eric and the other girl who had seemed really nice when she and Second had arrived to find Eric when he was showing me around. But, wait, if Second has been Naruto this entire time, then he had been the one who came to svae me in our home village, he had spoken to Tsunade and had seen me here, then why hadn't he said something to me?

A thought for another time.

On the big screen everything that was happening had just gotten more hectic.

Naruto and BK201 were fighting to capture their target.

The target was fighting to fend them both off.

And both Naruto and BK201 were fighting the target.

What a mess.

And with Naruto's extra help, the battle was still not getting anywhere.

"Third's team is responding," called back a man at a desk, "she is moving in on Second's position"

I remembered Third. She had been sitting next to Second's empty seat. She had long red hair and burning green eyes, but she was kinder and more talkative than the other commander, First.

Watching the screen I could see the flurry of movement as each person took on attack and defence positions so quickly that it was almost like a fast paced dance. Eric, with his big muscles followed Naruto's lead and attacked BK201 to try to get him out of the picture, but BK201 was smooth and fast, his every move having purpose. He continued to dodge their well timed attacks with ease. As they went, the target tried to attack them from behind, but each time was stopped by the cheerful girl on Second's team who threw explosive kunai before him, keeping him at a safe distance.

Naruto paused as Eric continued forward. He made three clones of himself to try to overwhelm BK201, but seemed to only force him back at a faster pace.

* * *

Naruto

BK201 was after my team's target. Eric was a strong man who swung his fists around with such speed and force that he kept BK201 on his toes. He was a dangerous contractor, but not one to kill aimlessly. From previous reports he only killed when necessary, so I was sure Eric was safe. If anyone was going to be killed by him today it would be the target or me. I stood still for the second, forming my chakra to put more into my shadow clone jutsu. This time I sent more clones to back up Eric, but I had left myself open for too long.

"Naruto!" cried Soren. I turned around on the spot knowing she was in the area behind me.

I could see what was happening, it was like everything was suddenly being played in slow motion, but I couldn't do anything to stop it. Our target was in striking range behind me and had swung his arm to get me with his blood, but Soren had leapt in front of me to shield me from the blood spray. At first out target looked disappointed he didn't get me, but when he saw he had at least gotten someone he smirked and raised a hand to click his fingers.

Soren stood and turned to face me, removing her bird mask. She had a horrified expression on her face and her eyes had welled up with tears. She knew our targets ability. Her cloak was already gone so she had no hope of removing all her clothes before our target would finish his attack. His blood was splattered as droplets from her chest to her knees and the occasional spot on the side of her face.

Behind her, he glowed blue and his inner eyes glowed red as he snapped his fingers together and all the droplets on Soren's clothes glowed white for a second before vanishing, leaving her body scattered with holes on her that were so deep you could see through them. Her blood splattered over me and her eyes grew vacant as she dropped to the ground by my feet.

I was frozen in place, abastloutly stunned by the moment. My target stepped closer.  
"Well that's one less of you pigs" he mocked.

I forced myself to snap back to the here and now and was flooded by anger. He had just killed one of my team. Eric had seen it too and had already turned away from BK201 and was charging towards our target. He swung his fists at him, but he cleared the way and went to attack Eric, but he dove out of his range. BK201 cam closer and this time focussed on striking me, but I avoided his attack. Eric looked back at me.

"Focus on him" I indicated to our target and Eric obeyed my order, knowing as well as I that Third and her team were on their way. BK201 threw one of his knives at me, and I deflected it with my kunai. I knew BK201's ability was electricity and his unique double bladed knives connected to him by metal strings were just another way for him to give his electrical attacks greater range.

I could hear that Eric had managed to hit the target and had forced him back through an old stone wall that crumbled shortly after. That attack would have slowed our target down greatly and he would be growing exhausted due to blood loss by now surely.

I moved so I was standing atop a broken wall and BK201 jumped up after me, pulling both his double blades, one held in each hand and he ran towards me. I forced him back with a kick to his gut. I heard Eric make another hit as another wall crumbled further away.

BK201 was fast, he quickly recovered from my blow and was coming back at me. It would've been great if BK201 could be captured but First struggled to do just that which only meant I had even lesser of a chance. All I could do was wait for back up and hope BK201 would flee due to being outnumbered. He was a formidable contractor, but he was smart enough to not take risks that could lead to his capture.

"Second" called a strong voice from the ground and Third leapt up to join me, positioning herself behind BK201. Her team members moved to join Eric back on the ground.  
"Give up BK201. You are under arrest" announced Third, her long red hair tied back into a ponytail moving with the breeze. Her red hair stood out strongly against her team's white mask, hooded cloaks and other uniform. BK201 considered his current position silently from behind his mask. A cry from one of Third's men caught everyone's attention. Wei, in his weakened state, managed an attack on the man, striking at his arm till the man was left writhing in pain on the ground clutching onto his elbow where his arm once was. I only looked away for a second but when our attention returned to BK201 he was nowhere to be seen.

* * *

A/N: sorry for the sheer lateness of this chapter and for any roughness as the writing of it was separated by weeks at a time :/


	7. Chapter 7

Sakura

BK201 had gotten away, but Lady Blue didn't look surprised. She looked more annoyed about his presence than anything else. On the screen Wei was overpowered and restrained while Naruto's and Third's team prepared to return to Lady Blue's fortress with their new prisoner. Both their black and white uniforms contrasting with one another and the blood spilled from the battle.

Naruto turned away from the main group and went to Eric's side as he was crouching beside Soren's body. From Lady Blue's room we couldn't hear what they were saying but both Eric and Naruto were talking with sad expressions on their faces. After a short while Eric rose, being taller and broader than Naruto he looked formidable. Naruto patted him on the back and he returned to the main group, personally taking charge of restraining Wei while Naruto took his turn to crouch beside Soren. He pushed some hair from her face, closed her eyes and said some words before picking her up to carry her home while Third dealt with her own team's injuries.

* * *

Hei

"That was a close one" commented Mao as he appeared from his hiding place to sit beside me in the alley. His purple cat eyes looked almost amused. Mao was a part of our growing team but he spent most of his time with me, apparently he finds me amusing in a way that other contractors lack. My choices are different, or something like that. Looking at him I wondered how he managed to gain respect from anyone with a body like his, but I guessed being one of the founders of our team helped. And being with me half the time was bound to help seeing as I'm well known among other contractors. I was either feared or respected.

"Mhm," I nodded, looking away from Mao and into the street, watching for signs of having been followed, "I hadn't expected the Third to show up to"

"Neither Third or Second are as strong as First. They would have been easy for you to have killed" commented Mao, narrowing his eyes at Hei with curiosity.  
"So why didn't you?" Mao leaned in closer, wanting to here my answer.

"Why? There was no point in killing them when I could get away" Mao leaned back and grinned showing his small pointed cat teeth at me, clearly amused.

"You are indeed a strange one. Any other contractor would have killed them any chance they got" Mao left it at that as he turned his head to lick his black fur, a strong cat habit that he disliked. He turned back to face me, the bell-microphone on his red collar jingling as he did.  
"Sorry Hei but I am heading off now. I need to download a data pack from the network again before I lose my mind to a cat" I nodded to him and he headed off at a good pace out and into the street, perfectly camouflaged in his cat body. I on the other hand had to get changed before I could waltz around in the streets.

* * *

Sakura

I had been excited for when Naruto was to return to the fortress. I knew he would be deeply upset about Soren's death, but I needed some questions answered, like why he never revealed that he was Second to me. Deep down I had to admit I was hurt, but there must have been a good reason for his secrecy. I stuck with Lady Blue knowing that Naruto and Third would be reporting directly to her. Lady Blue was pleasant enough to let me tag along with her as I was still seen as a guest here. A man approached her and announced that Second and Third had returned. I was nervous but also hopeful with the prospect of looking Naruto in the eyes. I wanted to see his face.

Lady Blue returned to her "throne" room where only her seat sat and I stood off to the side and behind her royal looking seat as Naruto and Third entered, They both entered looking down as they approached Lady Blue, stopping before her and dropping to one knee with an arm across their middle in a bow. They remained in the position until Lady Blue spoke to allow them to stand. When they stood Naruto looked to me. His head remained still but his blue eyes flicked towards me and his eyes were full of regret and sadness, but I couldn't be certain if that look was intended for me or if it was from the shock of Soren's sacrifice.  
Naruto's full attention was back on Lady Blue as she began to address them both. It was clear that when she stopped speaking that Second and Third would have their turn of speaking in order to report the day's events. Personally I thought having them report was silly seeing as she had just watched all of it.

Third began first, inclining her head before she spoke of what her team had been doing before they were called in to aid Second's team. I watched Naruto intently, trying to pick his mood and emotions, but he did his best to ignore me, not even a glance to look at me.

"My Lady," entered a messenger from a side door to the great room. He bowed as Naruto and Third had before. Everyone in the room fell silent to hear the man speak.

"You may speak" announced Lady Blue and the man relayed his message without lifting from his position.

"My Lady, one of our teams has secured several civilians that match the description of the man that escaped during Second's mission in the Leaf village. We request our guest to help identify the man"

"I see" replied Lady Blue in a calm and majestic voice that held the underline of authority.  
"Sakura, if you would be wiling" Lady Blue had stood at her seat and turned to face me, indicating with a flowing hand towards the messenger who had now gotten to his feet.

"Oh, yes of course Lady blue" I quickly said once I realised what she wanted and I quickly bent my body into a non-graceful bow and followed the messenger back out the side door he had come.

I looked back as I exited the door, seeing Naruto's blue eyes watch me leave without any head movement.

I followed the messenger silently till we continued down two levels and through a door that opened into a harshly lit room. Lady Blue's troops lined the side walls while several simular looking men lined the far wall and stood beneath the harsh lighting, squinting to protect their eyes but their hands were cuffed together with a chain connecting the cuffs to the ground so the men could not hope to cover their eyes. It seemed a little harsh on the men, but Lady Blue was known to be tight on security.

I knew exactly what I was there for, to identify the man that had escaped from the village, so I stepped forward to study the men. The troops in the room let me do my business without a word. I remembered the man from the village. His hair had been lighter than my attackers, chestnut colour almost, and he had a leaner body, blue eyes and cigarette burns on his skin.  
Knowing that, I spotted the man right away.

Thinking back on that night, It had been Naruto, Second, who had saved me. He had chosen not to speak to me to hide who he was, which was odd, because his team mates knew who I was once they had learned my name, or at least Soren had. And Tsunade, she knew it was Naruto the whole time. That made my blood boil. Not only had she refused to tell anyone where she had sent Naruto, but I failed to see it was him when he was right in front of me and Tsunade had gone along with it all.  
_Someone_ had a** lot **of explaining to do.

I turned back to the closest troop, told him quietly which man was the contractor they were after and excused myself from the room, too angry to want to stick around. I wanted to find Naruto. I needed to. He was the only one here who could answer my questions.

I made it up one floor when I was stopped by Eric on my way to the next flight of stairs up.

"Oh hi Eric" I said pleasantly. I didn't want to come across as rude to him.  
"Where are you off to?" I asked trying to start small talk and it was probably best if I didn't mention their mission or Soren.

"I was looking for you, actually" he said beaming down at me with some of the most amazing teeth I had ever seen.

"Oh, what for?"

"Did you identify the contractor?" asked Eric, ignoring my earlier question. How annoying.

"Yes"

"Good, then your job here is done" he beamed again, "Lady Blue would like you to attend dinner with her again tonight for we shall be heading off tomorrow at dawn"

"What?" I started. My time here had been so short and now my head was buzzing with questions to ask Naruto, I didn't have time to sit at a boring meal for hours only to have to pack then sleep for the journey back the next day. I needed to talk to Naruto.

"Oh, and there's something else Lady Blue would like from you too?" this time Eric's smile lessened but had an air of embarrassment and cheek about it. I didn't like where this was going


	8. Chapter 8

Sakura

Dinner was as boring as it was the time before. The only difference being that Naruto was present… and….I was stuck in a dress. Not my average dress either. This dress was mighty fancy. It was a very faint pink in colour, even lighter in colour than my hair, in fact in certain light it looked white. Even lighter lace lined the short sleeve cuffs and the bottom of the dress. And a darker pink ribbon wrapped around my middle and formed a bow on one side. The dress was fine really, except for the layer upon layer that made up the bottom half of the dress. It was one of those designs where it's a short dress, but a matching layer is added beneath it to lengthen the dress as a whole. This was repeated four times till the dress was below my knees. The downside being that not only was it long but the bottom of it stood outwards, making sitting very difficult. The ladies who helped dress me really admired the dress and they even got away with doing my hair, but I stopped them when they brought out the makeup.

Dressing had taken so long that when I arrived for dinner, everyone else was already present and to my embarrassment they all stopped and looked at me till I found my seat. I smiled and acted nice the entire time but I was so uncomfortable I could have torn the thing off and over-turned the massive table.  
Lady Blue gave me a warm smile when she saw me in the dress she had chosen for me and she even took a moment from talking to First to comment on my dress from across the table.  
Naruto had seen me when I had come into the room, but his eyes had lingered on me longer than most before he turned back to listen to what Lady Blue and First were discussing.

Dinner was served and it was an assortment of meats, breads and salads all around. The food was great but the company at my end of the table was poor. After some comments about my appearance I was back to being ignored as they chatted about their day. I couldn't wait till this ended. And finally it did – thank goodness.

When it came time for everyone to leave, we all rose and made our way to the door. Being closer to the door I was one of the first out, but I stood to the side waiting for Naruto to pass me so I could catch him, but he never past me. I looked back into the dining room to see him walking towards a smaller side door behind Lady Blue, First and Third. I went to step after him, but he looked back at me at that moment and shook his head at me, indicating for me to stay where I was. His expression looked incredibly sad, but I had to listen to him so I turned and went back to my room.

Eric was waiting for me when I reached the corridor my guest room was along. He greatly admired my dress and he chatted to me happily until I reached my room to which he kindly said goodnight and that he would meet me outside my room at dawn tomorrow for us to leave back to my home.  
The moment I closed the door behind myself and ensured I was alone I let myself fall back onto the large bed and stare at the detailed roof and over-extravagant lights. I let out a big sigh believing I would not have the opportunity to talk to Naruto at all. Disappointed I decided a shower would be nice, so I happily stripped out of the uncomfortable dress and stood under the refreshingly warm water. When I emerged from the shower, with my hair and my body each wrapped in a crisp white towel there was a knock at the door. I was frantic to find where my comfortable clothes had been dumped earlier in the night. The person on the other side of the door knocked again.

"Coming" I called, increasing my frantic pace of searching. I glimpsed my bundle of red and pink clothes on the floor on the other side of the bed. In a hurry I dove onto the bed, reaching over the side. I heard some faint noises behind me and shot up, rolling off the end of the bed and spinning on my heel to face the direction of the sound. A had to hold in a shriek when I came face to face with Naruto as he looked at me in puzzlement as I held my bundle of clothes before me. Our faces were around the ten centimetre mark from one another and my face went red, primarily from embarrassment before I was overwhelmed with anger. I clutched my towel in place and dropped my bundle of clothes as I stepped forward with a scowl on my face and my free hand raised to pound Naruto, but he casually stepped back and held a finger to his lips so I lowered my fist, puzzled.

"Naruto, I – " I began but he cut me off with a finger to my lips as he stepped closer again.

"First get changed, then we can talk" he whispered before respectively walking into the guest room bathroom and closing the door behind him. Much more gentlemanly than the Naruto I remembered.  
Despite the door being closed I turned my back to it and changed quickly. I went to call out to Naruto but stopped myself after seeing how much of a deal he had been making about being quiet, so instead I eased up to the bathroom door and knocked on it lightly. Shortly after Naruto emerged and waited for me to make a move.  
I went to sit down on the edge of my bed; it was a much comfier option than the chairs that were in the room. Naruto hesitated before moving to join me. I took in his appearance as he did so. He no longer wore his trademark orange and black clothes; instead his pants were patterned khaki pants with pockets down the sides. They were in a green camouflage pattern and went down to his ankles. He wore enclosed black ninja boots and a plain white t-shirt that may have been a bit too tight for him as it showed off every line his body had to offer under the fabric, not that it seemed to bother him. His hair had grown, but not as long as his fathers and he had a band of some sort around his left wrist. It was thick and black and just loose enough to easily move around his wrist.

Naruto plopped himself down beside me and splayed his arms out behind him to prop himself up. I could tell he was waiting for me to say something.

"Naruto," I began after a short moment of silence between us, "why didn't you tell me you were Second? Why didn't you tell me who you were back in the Leaf village?"

Beside me he let out a long sigh and looked to the roof as he responded.  
"I didn't want you knowing I was here" I would have spoken up to ask about that, but Naruto knew me too well and was a step ahead. He really had grown.  
"I know I've been away for a while, back at the village I kept it a secret because it was easier, but after I spoke to Tsunade I knew I couldn't have told you or you may have stayed here. This isn't a good place to be" Naruto was staring me in the eyes now with a concerned look to his blue eyes. I knew what he was talking about. When Naruto had been sent away I thought it was an ordinary mission, but after no one heard from him I questioned Tsunade many times, pushing for answers. I knew she had been hiding everything about where Naruto was and what he was doing and for months it drove me to the point where I searched for Naruto whenever I had the time during a mission. I suppose one could say I had become obsessed. Not so much with Naruto himself, but I hated having him gone so I became obsessed with finding him and bringing him back. Now that I think about it, that must have been how Naruto felt when it came to Sasuke.  
Tsunade knew that if I knew Naruto was here that I would have come earlier and I would have done anything to bring him home. I would have caused a lot of trouble, politically.

"What's so bad about this place other than the contractors?" I asked almost defensively. Naruto just stared at me for a long while as though the answer was obvious and after a moment I got it.  
"The gate" I answered and Naruto gave me a serious nod.

"No one is safe from it. The less people close to it the better"

"But what about you?" I asked, getting to my feet. I was getting angry again, angry that he wasn't thinking of himself and his own safety. Naruto opened his mouth to answer but fell silent when there was another knock at the door. We both exchanged glances. I was annoyed by the interruption while Naruto looked oddly serious. He left for my bathroom without a word or a sound and closed the door, leaving me to deal with the door.  
When I opened it there stood a weedy man with a moustache asking if I needed anything for the night to which I put on a fake smile and declined. When I shut the door and opened the bathroom door I found the damp room empty. Naruto had left through the window.

* * *

Naruto

I felt bad for leaving without saying goodbye to Sakura, especially after not being able to see her after these two years, but I suspected the interruption at the door was more for my sake than hers. Lady Blue didn't like losing track of her commanders, even within her own fortress.  
Other than that I couldn't be seen spending time with Sakura or even showing that I knew her, any sign of our friendship could put her life in danger in a place like this. The contractors were up to something. They have been teaming up, moving in groups and all together become more secretive and mysterious. Someone was leading them, ordering them from the shadows. Any day now this city would become a war zone. I couldn't pull Sakura into that. If a spying contractor saw that one of lady Blue's commander's was close to a single person, they could use that against me.  
As much as I loved Sakura's company, I was glad she was leaving tomorrow morning.

* * *

Sakura

Having been left alone, I felt miserable inside that Naruto had left, but I just assumed he had a good reason for it so I tried my best to put it aside and sleep.

I had been enjoying my sleep so well that it took a messenger to shake me awake. Startled I jumped out of bed and readied myself for attack, only to see I had startled the messenger greatly. I apologized to the woman with my cheeks blushing from my embarrassment.

"Oh, no, it's alright madam," all the serving people called me that and I swear my eyebrow twitched every time as I tried to hold back my disliking of such a formal title, "Eric is waiting for you in the courtyard" She nodded and left the room. Damn I had overslept.

When I had finished packing my gear (hoping Naruto would reappear at any moment – not that he did) I was in a miserable mood, but did my best to hide it from cheerful Eric when I met him outside in the large paved courtyard that was between Lady Blue's keep and the wall that surrounded her keep.  
Eric was cheerful to see me and even greeted me with hug with strength that matched mine. After a few awkward moments we headed off. I never thought I would feel so much longing to stay at a place like this.

* * *

Naruto

I watched Eric lead Sakura away. I was sad to watch her go. Of all people from home who could have come here, she would have been my choice of company, but she couldn't stay at a place like this. I wouldn't allow it.  
Eric had spoken to me late last night, having figured that I had visited Sakura. He may not be the brainiest person but he noticed things when he wanted to. We were both still upset from our loss as a team, but he was good at hiding his feelings with a smile and I had no doubt that escorting Sakura home would keep his mind to busy for him to sit and think about the last couple of days here.


End file.
